The New ‘Child’s Play’ Will Feature a New Animatronic Chucky

Chucky — the evil doll from Child’s Play — turns 30 this year. If Chucky aged like a normal, non-evil doll-type monster, he’d probably have a crappy job in finance and student loans he can’t afford by now. But the laws of man do not apply to sentient toys. So in 2019, Chucky’s getting a new reboot, also called Child’s Play.

Given the advancements in technology over the last 30 years, it is entirely possible that the people making this movie could have decided to do a wholly CGI Chucky. That would have been a nightmare — and not the good kind that you want from a horror movie. Instead, MGM has announced that the “BUDDI doll” (the updated version of the “Good Guys” doll in the original Child’s Play series) will be brought to life by “Emmy Award-winning character FX studio MastersFX”:

MastersFX has brought the new Chucky doll to life on screen like never before in a mixture of practical on-set puppet work and digital FX enhancements. Todd Masters, founder of MastersFX, and his team took six weeks to prepare and assemble seven practical animatronic puppets, each with interchangeable arms and heads that perform a variety of required actions on set. The FX team, led by ace puppeteer Keith Arbuthnot, along with Mike Fields, Jason Ward and Josh Raymond each controlled a different part of the doll.

The image above is the MastersFX team working on their new Chucky. Some CGI is fine (and even welcome) but It just wouldn’t be a Child’s Play without an actual, physical evil dude to really ratchet up the intensity and make you question every single plaything you buy for your kids.

Child’s Play — which also stars non-toy actors Aubrey Plaza and Brian Tyree Henry — opens in theaters on June 21, 2019.